The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from a father and son who built Adelphia Communications into a cable television powerhouse and were convicted of fraud after it collapsed into bankruptcy.

The high court refused on Monday to hear an appeal from John and Timothy Rigas.

The Rigases were sent to prison after Adelphia collapsed in 2002. At the time, it was the country's fifth-largest cable TV company.

Prosecutors said John Rigas used it like a personal piggy bank, paying for expenses as small as massages and withdrawing $100,000 from the company whenever he wished.

The Rigases say the government should have turned over to them notes taken during prosecutorial interviews with some witnesses. They also say their prison sentences were too long.

The administration told a federal appeals court in Washington on Wednesday that the order by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth stops "funding for embryonic stem cell research in its tracks."

Lamberth rejected the administration's request to let funding continue while it pursues an appeal of his order.

Medical researchers value stem cells because they are master cells that can turn into any tissue of the body. Research eventually could lead to cures for spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease and other ailments.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit earlier this month declined to schedule an en banc hearing, or a hearing before all judges in the ninth circuit, as requested by the defendant in a drug-related case. The defendant was seeking to suppress evidence gathered against him by federal agents who attached a GPS device to his vehicle without first obtaining a warrant.

The defendant, Juan Pineda-Moreno of Oregon, claims that U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agents violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search by planting, without a warrant, a tracking device on a vehicle parked in his driveway in 2007. The agents were tracking Pineda-Moreno on suspicion that he belonged to a marijuana growing operation.

A three-judge panel of the appellate court in January rejected Pineda-Moreno's claims and ruled that his constitutional rights were not violated. The court this month rejected a petition by Pineda-Moreno for a rehearing of his case by the full Ninth Circuit panel of judges.

The appellate court's ruling essentially gives law enforcement agencies in the nine Western states under the Ninth Circuit's jurisdiction the legal authority to surreptitiously enter personal property and attach a GPS tracking device on vehicles parked there without first obtaining a warrant.

The popularity of Toyota took another blow last week as the company announced another in what seems to be a regular series of recalls.

Apparently there have been issues with stalling engines in the 2005 through 2008 Matrix Hatchbacks and Corolla Sedans. This particular recall encompasses over one million cars sold in the United States and Canada.

The repercussions of the ongoing recalls can be clearly seen in the value of the stock for Toyota, and a widespread wave of negative feedback from Toyota owners. Sales of Toyota vehicles have dropped considerably this year on a nationwide level.

If you own one of these models, Toyota has announced that you will be receiving a notification of the recall sometime during the month of September. If you do not receive a notification, visit the dealership that sold you the car for further action.

The "Two and a Half Men" actor pleaded guilty Monday to misdemeanor third-degree assault in exchange for prosecutors dropping two other more serious charges, including a felony charge of menacing. He was sentenced to 30 days in a rehabilitation center, 30 days of probation and 36 hours of anger management.

Sheen has 30 days to make arrangements to serve his sentence at Promises Treatment Center in California, though whether he will actually have to report there remains in question.

Sheen's attorney, Yale Galanter, said the actor has already spent 93 days at Promises this year and the center could choose to credit that time toward his sentence.

"Credit for time served is absolutely on the table," Galanter said. "How much credit he gets is up to Promises."

The charges against the actor stemmed from a Christmas Day 2009 dispute with his wife. Brooke Mueller Sheen told police that the actor threatened to kill her and brandished a knife after she told him she wanted a divorce.

Faced with expensive legal challenges, officials in the eastern Nebraska town of Fremont are considering suspending a voter-approved ban on hiring or renting property to illegal immigrants until the lawsuits are resolved.

The City Council narrowly rejected the ban in 2008, prompting supporters to gather enough signatures for the ballot measure. The ordinance, which was approved by voters last month, has divided the community. Supporters say it was necessary to make up for what they see as lax federal law enforcement and opponents argue that it could fuel discrimination.

But the council's president, Scott Getzschman, insisted the elected body was concerned about money, not about any lack of support for the ordinance. The City Council is scheduled to vote on suspending the ban on Tuesday night, a day before the city goes to court over the measure.

The city faces lawsuits from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund. City officials have estimated that Fremont's costs of implementing the ordinance — including legal fees, employee overtime and improved computer software — would average $1 million a year.

According to a Press Release: The Justice Department hasn't ruled out filing a second lawsuit challenging Arizona's immigration law if evidence shows racial profiling at work, Attorney General Eric Holder says.

The Obama administration sued Arizona last week, arguing that the state is impinging on federal responsibilities for dealing with immigration. The state law requires police, while enforcing other laws, to question a person's immigration status if there's reasonable suspicion the person is in the country illegally. It also requires legal immigrants to carry their immigration documents.

The suit didn't deal with concerns about racial profiling so that it could focus on the most serious problem with the law, Holder said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation." In six months or a year, his department might look into the law's impact on racial profiling, he said.

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